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For those who don't know "CWT" stands for centiweight. That means the van was licenced to carry 800 pounds

The bright red Sharps Toffee van was made in Macau



The rest were made in China

The bright red Sharps one was replaced by a very dull "His Master's Voice one. (The company now own as HMV)



A model was made for the Earls Court motor show for 1991. I've never known for sure if this was a Code 1 or 2



Then the Commer popped up as part of the mainly Yesteryear set made to commemorate the Sydney Olympic Games in 2004. An appropriate yesteryear was used to illustrate each Summer Games up to the last time it was held in Autralia - in Melbourne in 1956. The Copmmer was chosen to reflect the 1952 games held in Helsinki Finland (Finland isn't known for car or truck production)

If the labels were fitted by 'Matchbox Intl' for the organisers of Motorfair, it is a 'CODE 1'.
If 'Matcbox Intl' only gave permission for the labels to be added to the model, it is a 'CODE 2'. If neither of these two, it is a 'CODE 3' but this is not officially sanctioned by anyone, they became the 'Excepted' categories by members of an early "Matchbox" Collectors Club. It is however being used by many model collectors to clarify the issue status of models.

The fact that this particular model seems to fetch around 60 U.S. Dollars on the 'net', is suggesting it is a 'CODE 1' and they were fully produced by 'Matchbox International' for the Show, in limited numbers, however, there should be a label on the box to confirm this (as would a 'CODE 2' model), But probably not a 'CODE 3' model.

GHOSTHUNTER.

Wolfie Ginsburg wrote:For those who don't know "CWT" stands for centiweight. That means the van was licenced to carry 800 pounds

Close, Wolfie, but not quite right.
The abbreviation CWT stands for 'hundredweight', C being the Roman numeral for 100.
In the Imperial system which uses the long ton of 2,240 lb, a hundredweight is 8 stone = 112 lb, there being 20 hundredweight in a ton. This van was therefore designed for a 896 lb payload.

Idris wrote:

Wolfie Ginsburg wrote:For those who don't know "CWT" stands for centiweight. That means the van was licenced to carry 800 pounds

Close, Wolfie, but not quite right.
The abbreviation CWT stands for 'hundredweight', C being the Roman numeral for 100.
In the Imperial system which uses the long ton of 2,240 lb, a hundredweight is 8 stone = 112 lb, there being 20 hundredweight in a ton. This van was therefore designed for a 896 lb payload.

Yes, I think Centum Weight may be the correct term. Am I right in thinking that the short version (100lb) is commonly used in North America?

johnboy wrote:Yes, I think Centum Weight may be the correct term. Am I right in thinking that the short version (100lb) is commonly used in North America?

Yes, because America uses the short ton of 2,000 lb.

I certainly know the grading system - I even have some Code 4 models - models made by the company especially to commemorate an event or as a gift to an individual (I even have a couple made especially for me)
It's just that I can't get to my Earls Court 91's box to establish if it's Code 1 or 2

And of court 100 lbs is a hundredweight - I had a senior moment!

The 'Motorfair 91' Van was based on the 'His Masters Voice' Van (You probably knew this Wolfie), and as far as I understand it, less than 3,000 examples were produced, but they did not have a certificate placed inside the box (A shame really!), so when you can, try and dig your example out and post some more pictures of here, and this should also confirm which Code it is by looking at yours, hopefully.

I don't collect these models and cannot now remember who was responsible for this Van, but was always interested in Motor Shows and would have been interested in models such as this, it was probably featured in one of the car magazines of the time, when they ran a feature on the show and mentioned the model in their description of items available to tie-in with the show, anyone got 'Motorfair 91' magazines or show guides?

Ghosty.